The Central Library houses a lot informative local history materials, and one of the best places to dig for hard to find information is the Iowa Vertical File. The vertical file is kind of like a catchall, it has article clippings, brochures, event programs, handouts, and various other little pieces of paper that aren’t significant enough to catalog, but have valuable nuggets of information that might be useful to information seekers. Now, don’t get me wrong, we don’t just pile this stuff up. The vertical file is organized by subject, but we don’t keep a list of materials we have filed under each subject.

So, if you’ve run into a dead end with a local history question about Iowa, particularly the Des Moines area, try the Iowa Vertical File…you might just find buried treasure.